Design and Development of an Anthropomorphic Robotic Head with Force Attentive Reflex Actions

Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions and intentions to non-human entities. Nowadays, development of anthropomorphic features in robotic heads is a major area of interest in the field of robotics. Many robotics heads with anthropomorphic features are developed to improve the social interaction between robots and humans. However, the existing robotic heads need improvements in construction and behaviors to facilitate more friendly interactions. This paper presents about design and development of an anthropomorphic robotic head that can make reflex actions based on external forces applied on it. The design parameters of the robotic head have been decided by examining the biomechanics of human head. The robotic head has been designed with 3 DoFs for the neck section. The developed force attentive mechanism is capable of identifying the direction of the applied force. The response of the robot depends on the direction of the external force and the response is decided by a reaction function. Functionalities of the robotic head have been verified from the experimental results and the results are presented. Furthermore, the robotic head has been designed and developed in such a way that it can be used as a research platform for future research.